Ukraine would like to get a share in TANAP gas pipeline from turkey

Turkey is interested in implementation of joint projects with Ukraine in field of energy, in particular, production of hydrocarbons, Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday at the meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.

"We think that we can establish cooperation in such fields as transportation of power, construction of underground gas storages in Turkey and joint extraction of hydrocarbons," Erdogan said.

Yanukovich said that energy issues were a focus of attention at the meeting with Turkish Premier and added that active bilateral dialogue is in progress in this area.

He also added that Ukraine would like to join construction of the trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP).

TANAP, which will be built from the east to the west of Turkey to the border with Bulgaria or Greece, will become a part of South Gas Corridor. Gas from the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah-Deniz in the Caspian Sea will be transported via this pipeline to the European market. Minimum carrying capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cub.m. a year. The partners of the project plan to solve all the issues this year and start construction to put the gas pipeline into operation by the end of 2017.

First time that the Ukrainian officials asked Turkey to give them a share in TANAP project in March 2012. Ukrainian Premier also made this proposal to the administration of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). However, SOCAR President Rovnag  Abdullayev said that the third parties could get share in TANAP only from SOCAR's share. The shares will be provided to the companies, which have free gas resources in the Caspian Sea and would like to sell this gas at the European Union markets.-0--